The streets around Salt Lake City’s downtown emergency shelter have long been home to hundreds of homeless people. In recent weeks, though, nearly all seem to have vanished following a police operation. Local residents are mystified as to where they’ve gone.

The Salt Lake City police chief, Mike Brown, said he had visited parks and the Jordan river, which threads its way to the Great Salt Lake and has homeless camps dotted along its banks, but he hadn’t seen an influx from downtown. Sgt Brandon Shearer has been up in a police helicopter looking for camps and seemed equally perplexed when asked where the people had gone. “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s a good question.”

Advocates, for their part, fear a humanitarian crisis is brewing.

The unfolding drama is all the more remarkable considering that several years ago, national media reports published claims by Utah that it had “won the war” on homelessness there, at least when it came to housing those who had been outside the longest. Jon Stewart ran a laudatory piece titled “The homeless homed”. But the picture wasn’t quite that simple.

While the country’s most prominent homeless crises are in coastal cities – New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles – the mountain-ringed capital of the Mormon church has also long struggled to house or, in the view of some, has politely ignored its homeless population. The Republican legislature in Utah is fond of the philosophy of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, and struggling not-for-profit groups pick up the slack when it comes to homelessness funding. (Read more from “Mystery in Salt Lake City: Where Have Hundreds of Homeless People Gone?” HERE)

On Tuesday, the world watched as Apple unveiled their tenth-anniversary special edition iPhone, the iPhone X. While iPhone boasts a newer more secure phone—using its patented new facial recognition system—Internet sleuths were quick to point out the ominous implications behind the new tech.

As RT reports, the iPhone X replaces the iconic “home” button, featured on all previous versions, with a new “TrueDepth camera system.” A little black bar at the top of the phone contains several sensors, cameras, and even a dot projector that all work together to create a mathematical 3D model of the owner’s face.

However, there are some ways this technology can actually be used against you.

Imagine for a moment, you are one of the countless individuals who just filmed a gruesome act of police brutality. Many of those countless individuals, as TFTP has frequently reported, have found themselves subject to unlawful detainment and illegal search and seizure as cops attempt to erase any evidence of their wrongdoing. Now, imagine that the only thing standing in the way of a coverup of an innocent person being killed by police is the password on your phone to protect the video from police deleting it.

A secure phone, at this moment, is the only thing that can protect the documented evidence of criminal behavior. Luckily—for the police—if you have a new iPhone X, all they theoretically need to do is to handcuff you and point it at your face. Now they have access to all of your private information.

Think police won’t try to delete your video? Think again.

Just last week, in an exclusive report, TFTP exposed a case of alleged deleted evidence in Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, after a police officer killed a deaf electrical engineer. A security guard said he watched and filmed police kill Josh Cloud—an account which differs greatly from the official story—and he was detained and his video deleted.

Had his phone been locked and had the security guard resisted alleged police pressure to confiscate his phone, evidence of a police murder may still exist. However, if he had an iPhone X, even if he would’ve resisted, they need only point it at his face.

“With the iPhone X, your iPhone is locked until you look at it and it recognizes you. Nothing has ever been more simple, natural and effortless,” Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing said in his keynote speech Tuesday. “This is the future of how we’ll unlock our smartphones and protect our sensitive information.”

However, as many have pointed out, this simplicity is the device’s potential downfall.

While some folks expressed concern that the iPhone X will allow someone to unlock your iPhone while you sleep, Apple directly countered that claim, noting that the feature will only work when the user looks at the device with their eyes open. Schiller also explained that FaceID will recognize a user even when they change their hairstyle, put on glasses, wear a hat or change their appearance in other ways—perhaps when an unconscious person has their eyes pulled open.

The good news, however, is that while this technology has these ominous implications for abuse, it is far more secure than any of the previous devices. According to Schiller, the Touch ID had a false unlock rate of one in 50,000, whereas the new FaceID only had an error rate of one in 1 million.

Apple also has an extensive history of resisting the police state attempts at creating back doors to their technology. Just last year, in a landmark case, Apple refused to help the government break the law and allow for the various spy agencies to monitor iPhone users with a special decryption key for the State.

Had the government successfully forced Apple into unlocking the phone or creating a backdoor to their encryption, experts in the technology field warned that this could be the end of privacy as we know it. For now, however, privacy is still winning—that is, until we see the first case of police unlocking an iPhone X by pointing at a handcuffed person’s face. (For more from the author of “With IPhone’s New FaceID, Cops Can Unlock Your Phone by Pointing at Your Face—While You’re Cuffed” please click HERE)

Bacterial cells treated with a common antibiotic have been spotted changing shape to survive while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The way bacteria act in near-zero gravity environments could pose a serious problem for treating astronauts with infections.

The “clever shape-shifting” was detected in bacteria being experimented on in the near-weightlessness of space, and is believed to help the bacteria survive.

An experiment on the common E coli bacteria subjected it to different concentrations of the antibiotic gentamicin sulfate, a drug which kills the bug on Earth.

However, in comparison to a control group on Earth, the space bacteria showed a 13-fold increase in cell numbers and a 73% reduction in cell column size. (Read more from “‘Shape-Shifting’ Bacteria Spotted on International Space Station” HERE)

A facial recognition experiment that claims to be able to distinguish between gay and heterosexual people has sparked a row between its creators and two leading LGBT rights groups.

The Stanford University study claims its software recognises facial features relating to sexual orientation that are not perceived by human observers.

The work has been accused of being “dangerous” and “junk science”.

But the scientists involved say these are “knee-jerk” reactions.

Details of the peer-reviewed project are due to be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (Read more from “Controversy Over Artificial Intelligence That Identifies ‘Gay’ Faces” HERE)

Researchers at the University of Texas say the device is capable of identifying cancerous cells more than 150 times faster than existing technology.

The MasSpec Pen can give surgeons precise information about which tissue to cut or preserve, helping to improve treatment and reduce the chances of cancer reoccurring, they said.

Tests conducted by the team found the tool took just 10 seconds to provide a diagnosis for cancer and was more than 96 per cent accurate.

Livia Schiavinato Eberlin, an assistant professor of chemistry who designed the study, said: “If you talk to cancer patients after surgery, one of the first things many will say is ‘I hope the surgeon got all the cancer out’. (Read more from “New Handheld ‘Pen’ Allows Surgeons to Detect Cancer in 10 SECONDS” HERE)

The police department in the Chicago suburb of Hanover Park is warning local residents to stay away from diseased coyotes which have lost a bunch of hair and look “like some sort of ‘zombie’ dog.”

“Recently we have received several messages and posts from citizens concerned about what appear to be malnourished or neglected stray dogs,” the Hanover Park police department says in a Facebook announcement. “These are NOT lost pets, but are in fact coyotes.”

“There is unfortunately an increase in sarcoptic mange in the urban coyote populations which has caused these normally noctural animals to become more active during the day. Infected animals will often appear “mangy” — which looks just like it sounds,” the police department’s Facebook page also says.

(Read more from “Chicago’s Newest Problem Is an Invasion of ZOMBIE DOGS” HERE)

In a sweeping defeat for Obama-era holdovers at the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal court has tossed out a case in which the department had subpoenaed a Christian pastor’s views on Islam.

The Islamic Center of Culpeper, Virginia, had already won a favorable settlement in its Obama-aided case against the city, which agreed to provide a permit for the mosque to pump sewage from a site where it wants to build a mosque, even though state environmental officials had said the site was not suitable for a septic system.

But that wasn’t enough for the lawyers who staff the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. They wanted to make an example out of rural Culpeper County. How else to explain forcing a local pastor and other locals who spoke against the mosque at public hearings to turn over personal documents that would reveal their views on Islam?

Pastor Steve Harrelson of Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church was the main target in the sights of the DOJ, which sought bring him before an inquisition-type hearing, forcing him to testify about his opinions on Islam and also deliver up to the government his personal papers and documents.

But U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon put an end to the witch hunt for “Islamophobes” in this small northern Virginia town that was being perpetuated by Obama-appointed U.S. attorneys. (Read more from “DOJ Subpoenas Christian Pastor’s Views on Islam” HERE)

A Montana woman called 911 to report that she had purchased some “bad meth,” adding that the drug left a “bad taste in her mouth,” according to police.

A Great Falls Police Department officer was dispatched Friday afternoon to the home of Margery Ann Dayrider, 33, who had dialed cops to report having a bad reaction to meth she had injected . . .

As first reported by the Great Falls Tribune, Dayrider told the cop, “I do meth three times a day everyday and have never had this reaction before.” Dayrider said that she and her boyfriend had purchased the drug the night before and that she injected herself at 9 AM, 11 AM, and 3 PM. (Read more from “Cops: Woman Called 911 Over Meth Quality” HERE)

A Satanic cult is believed to be responsible for the murder of a pregnant Argentinian woman, who was discovered stabbed multiple times and burned in a fire so hot only her necklace helped authorities identify her.

The body of Fernanda Pereyra, 26, who was six months pregnant, was found July 20 at the 6-kilometer mark on Route 6 in Argentina, near the town of Rincon de los Sauces.

Authorities said due to the significance of the number 6, they believe Pereyra was the victim of a Satanist ritual.

The three sixes chosen – kilometer 6 on Route 6, and Pereyra being 6 months pregnant – were believed to be chosen to represent the number 666, found in the Book of Revelation and often used to refer to the devil.

Investigators believe the perpetrators stabbed Pereyra five times and then used a large amount of gasoline to burn her body. The killers then transported the remains in a Renault Kangoo van, Argentinian newspaper Clarin reported. (Read more from “Murder of Pregnant Woman Linked to Satanism?” HERE)

Airport officials in Nice, France, have confirmed that an employee at the Nice Airport has been suspended after punching a passenger who was holding a baby at the time.

The altercation took place on Saturday, as passengers waited to board an EasyJet flight to Luton, England. According to witnesses, the passenger’s wife had been complaining about the flight’s significant delay — more than 12 hours — when her husband approached another airport employee and the exchange turned physical.

“The man with the baby … went over and talked to the Frenchman and the Frenchman didn’t reply, he just smiled and smirked and then whacked this guy on the left side of his face,” said Arabella Arkwright, an EasyJet passenger standing behind the family, in an interview with BBC Radio 5.

Arkwright also took a photo of the altercation, which appears to capture the exact moment the employee’s fist makes contact with the man’s face.